RANDY HISNER
WZBD.com
The Heritage Patriots’ softball team opened its season with a five-inning 15-3 mercy-rule shellacking of the Wayne Generals Tuesday.
Leading by only 2-0 after two innings, the Patriots broke the game open by scoring four runs in the third inning and nine in the fourth to take a 15-0 lead before yielding a pair of runs to Wayne in the fifth.
Heritage coach Amanda Minchski used the home opener as an opportunity to get all five of her pitchers on the mound, starting a different one each inning. They combined on a no-hitter. (Wayne’s runs came on walks and wild pitches.) Fourth-year ace Danica Fuller, who has committed to play for Indiana Wesleyan University next year, started the game and retired the Generals in order in the first.
Her counterpart, Ja’naïve Grisby, did the same to the Patriots in the bottom of the inning.
It was the last time that happened. In the second, Heritage’s Avi Washington led off with a double to center, advanced to third on a passed ball, and scored on a double steal coordinated with Lucy Buuck, who had walked. Buuck later scored the Pats’ second run when freshman Sydney Martin laced a single to left.
In the Patriots’ four-run third inning, they mustered only two hits—singles by Buuck and freshman Calleigh Hirschy—but benefited from a walk to Teaghan O’Shaughnessey, another double steal, and two Wayne errors.
The fourth-inning explosion featured five hits, including two RBI singles by Buuck, and six walks, three of them of the bases-loaded variety. Hirschy and April Renninger also had RBI singles.
Hirschy took over the pitching duties in the fifth but had trouble finding the plate, walking the first four hitters she faced, two of them scoring on wild pitches. Freshman Hadley Shipp, who had retired the Generals in order in the fourth, striking out two, returned to the mound to close out the win and the no-hitter.
“We’ve got a lot of young kids playing some big roles, and they were definitely nervous tonight,” said Coach Minchski, who started three freshmen and a sophomore. “It was good to just let the kids get in there and get a little loose. Our plan going in was to pitch every pitcher we had, so all five kids got on the mound and got their kinks out as well.”
Buuck had a big night at the plate, going three-for-three with a walk and four RBI. O’Shaughnessey walked three times in three plate appearances. Hirschy had two hits.
The Patriots will travel to Columbia City Wednesday.
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